On this day: June 23

2013: Richard Matheson, best known as the author of "The Shrinking Man," "Hell House," "What Dreams May Come," "Bid Time Return," "A Stir of Echoes" and "I Am Legend," dies at age 87 in Los Angeles. Many of Matheson's novels have been adapted into movies. He also turned his 1971 short story "Duel" into a screenplay that was directed by a young Steven Spielberg for the television movie of the same name.

2013: Nik Wallenda, seventh-generation member of The Flying Wallendas family, becomes the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tightrope. The walk, at 1,500 feet in the air, was the highest of his career. He crossed a distance of about 1,400 feet in 22 minutes and 54 seconds on the 2-inch thick wire. The event was aired live worldwide on the Discovery Channel with a 10-second delay in a special title "Skywire Live with Nik Wallenda."

2011: Actor Peter Falk, best known for his role as Lt. Columbo on the television series "Columbo," dies at age 83 in Beverly Hills, California, from cardiorespiratory arrest, with pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease as underlying causes. He also appeared in movies such as "The Princess Bride," "The Great Race" and "Next," and many television guest roles. He was nominated for an Academy Award twice (for 1960's "Murder, Inc." and 1961's "Pocketful of Miracles"), and won the Emmy Award on five occasions (four for "Columbo") and the Golden Globe Award once.

2009: TV personality Ed McMahon, best known as Johnny Carson's sidekick and announcer on "The Tonight Show" for 30 years, dies at age 86 in Los Angeles. McMahon was also famous for hosting the TV talent show "Star Search" and presenting sweepstakes for the direct marketing company American Family Publishers.

2006: Television producer Aaron Spelling, who produced such TV shows as "The Mod Squad," "Charlie's Angels," "Beverly Hills, 90210," "7th Heaven" and "Sunset Beach," dies at age 83 in Los Angeles from complications of a stroke he suffered five days earlier.

2005: Former Ku Klux Klan organizer Edgar Ray Killen is sentenced to 60 years in prison for the slaying of three civil rights workers more than 40 years earlier in Mississippi. He had been convicted of three counts of manslaughter two days earlier, on the 41st anniversary of the crime. Killen's arrest on Jan. 6, 2005, marked the first time that anyone had faced state prosecution for the murders of the three volunteers, who were abducted and then slain on a remote road outside Philadelphia, Mississippi. The volunteers, all in their 20s, died while working to register black voters during the so-called Freedom Summer civil rights campaign in the once-segregated southern state. Their story was dramatized in the 1988 movie "Mississippi Burning."

1998: Irish-American actress and singer Maureen O'Sullivan, best known for playing Jane in the "Tarzan" series of films starring Johnny Weissmüller, dies of complications from heart surgery at age 87 in Scottsdale, Arizona. O'Sullivan also appeared in "The Thin Man," "Anna Karenina," "Pride and Prejudice" and "Maisie Was a Lady" in the 1930s and '40s.

1996: The Nintendo 64 video game console goes on sale in Japan. As part of the fifth generation of gaming, it primarily competed with the PlayStation and the Sega Saturn, eventually selling nearly 33 million units worldwide.

1995: Jonas Salk (right), the biologist and physician who discovered and developed the first successful polio vaccine, dies of heart failure at age 80 in La Jolla, California.

1993: Lorena Bobbitt is arrested after sexually mutilating her husband, John Wayne Bobbitt, in their Manassas, Virginia, apartment. Lorena Bobbitt said her husband had come home drunk and raped her. She then got a kitchen knife, severed his penis nearly in half and threw it in a field. After she called 911, it was recovered from the field and reattached. She was eventually acquitted by reason of temporary insanity of maliciously wounding her husband. He was also later tried and acquitted of spousal rape.

1992: Mafia boss John Gotti is sentenced in New York to life in prison without parole. He had been convicted in April 1992 of five murders, conspiracy to commit murder, racketeering, obstruction of justice, illegal gambling, extortion, tax evasion and loansharking. Gotti, memorably dubbed "The Teflon Don" in the 1980s in reference to several failed prosecutions against him, ultimately died of throat cancer on June 10, 2002.

1991: "Sonic the Hedgehog," the first game in the video game series of the same name is first released for the Sega Genesis in North America, Europe and Australia. The game proved a commercial success, establishing Sonic as the company's mascot and launching a series of more than two dozen titles as well a cartoons and comics.

1989: Tim Burton's superhero movie "Batman," starring Michael Keaton as Batman/Bruce Wayne and Jack Nicholson as The Joker," premieres in theaters. The movie grossed $43.6 million in its opening weekend, breaking the $29.4 million opening weekend record set by "Ghostbusters II" one week earlier. It went on to earn a total of $251.2 million at the North American box office, making it the highest-grossing North American release of 1989. It also earned another $160 million internationally.

1985: A terrorist bomb aboard Air India Flight 182 brings the Boeing 747 down off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 aboard. The jet (seen here landing at London Heathrow Airport two weeks before its destruction) was operating on the Montreal–London–Delhi route at the time of the explosion, with the majority of its victims Canadians of Indian ancestry. It was the first bombing of a 747 jumbo jet and the largest mass murder in Canadian history. Canadian law enforcement determined that the main suspects in the bombing were members of the Sikh militant group Babbar Khalsa, with the bombing and an explosion at Tokyo Narita International Airport at the same time that killed two baggage handlers thought to have been retaliation against India for an anti terrorist operation a year before. Inderjit Singh Reyat, a Canadian national, remains the only person legally convicted of involvement in the bombings, receiving 15 years in prison after pleading guilty in 2003 to manslaughter for building the bombs used in both attacks.

1982: Chinese-American Vincent Chin, 27, dies after several days in a coma following a June 19 assault in Highland Park, Michigan. Chin was beaten by Chrysler plant superintendent Ronald Ebens and his stepson Michael Nitz, who reportedly had mistaken him for Japanese and were angry about the success of Japanese auto companies. After a plea bargain brought the second-degree murder charges down to manslaughter, Ebens and Nitz received no jail time, sparking public outrage. The two tried in federal court in 1984 for violating Chin's civil rights, but were both eventually acquitted of all charges.

1980: "The David Letterman Show" debuts on NBC as a morning talk show. The show, a precursor to 1982's "Late Night with David Letterman," proved popular with critics but its edgy comedy didn't go over well with morning viewers. While it lasted only 90 episodes through Oct. 24, 1980, it originated some of the familiar bits that later became staples of Letterman's late-night shows, including "Small Town News" and "Stupid Pet Tricks."

1972: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman are taped talking about using the Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation's investigation into the Watergate break-ins.

1972: The Education Amendments of 1972 is signed into law by President Richard Nixon. The legislation is best known for its Title IX, which prohibited sexual discrimination to any educational program receiving federal funds. Title IX was intended to increase athletic opportunities for females. Here Sen. Birch Bayh, the author and chief Senate sponsor of the legislation, exercises with Title IX athletes at Purdue University in the 1970s.

1972: Actress Selma Blair, best known for her roles in movies such as "Cruel Intentions," "Hellboy," "Legally Blonde" and "The Sweetest Thing," is born Selma Blair Beitner in Southfield, Michigan. She's also known for her TV roles on "Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane," "Kath & Kim" and "Anger Management."

1971: The crime thriller "Klute," starring Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi andRoy Scheider, premieres in New York City. The movie features Fonda playing a prostitute who assists Sutherland's detective in solving a missing person's case. Fonda won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film.

1969: Warren E. Burger is sworn in as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court by retiring Chief Justice Earl Warren. The Supreme Court delivered a variety of transformative decisions on abortion, capital punishment, religious establishment, and school desegregation during Burger's tenure.

1965: Smokey Robinson & The Miracles release the song "The Tracks of My Tears." The song is considered one of the group's best and sold more than a million records within two years.

1964: Jack S. Kilby receives a U.S. patent (No. 3,138,743) for his invention of "Miniaturized Electronic Circuits," now known as integrated circuits, which he assigned to his employer, Texas Instruments. Integrated circuits are used in virtually all electronic equipment today in the form of microchips and have revolutionized the world of electronics. Also the inventor of the handheld calculator and the thermal printer, Kilby would go on to win the Nobel Prize in physics in 2000.

1964: Director, producer and screenwriter Joss Whedon is born Joseph Hill Whedon in New York City. Whedon has created the TV shows "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel" and "Firefly" and directed "Marvel's The Avengers."

1961: The Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent, officially enters into force.

1960: The Food and Drug Administration approves the prescription pill Enovid, initially marketed only for the treatment of menstrual disorders, for use as a contraceptive, making it the world's first approved oral contraceptive pill.

1957: Actress Frances McDormand, an Academy Award-winner for her performance in 1996's "Fargo," is born in Chicago, Illinois. McDormand also received Oscar nominations for her roles in "Mississippi Burning," "Almost Famous" and "North Country" and has also appeared in movies such as "Blood Simple," "Primal Fear," "Wonder Boys," "The Man Who Wasn't There" and "Burn After Reading."

1956: Musician, singer and TV personality Randy Jackson (far left), best known for his 12-season stint as a judge on "American Idol," is born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He has won a Grammy as a producer and has worked with artists such as Keith Richards, the Divinyls, Aretha Franklin, Kenny G, Bruce Springsteen, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Billy Joel.

1953: Frank J. Zamboni receives a U.S. patent (No. 2,642,679) for the ice resurfacer that famously bears his last name.

1948: Clarence Thomas, an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, is born in Pin Point, Georgia. Thomas was nominated by President George H. W. Bush in July 1991 and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate 52-48 following bitterly and intensely fought confirmation hearings. He succeeded Thurgood Marshall, becoming the second black justice to serve on the Court.

1947: The United States Senate follows the U.S. House of Representatives in overriding President Harry Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act, which severely restricts the activities and power of labor unions.

1940: German leader Adolf Hitler surveys newly defeated Paris in now occupied France during World War II. France would remain under Axis occupation until the liberation of the country after the Allied landings in June 1944.

1940: Sprinter Wilma Rudolph, who was considered the fastest woman in the world in the 1960s and competed in two Olympic Games, is born in Saint Bethlehem, Tennessee. In the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field during a single Olympic Games. She also won a bronze at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. She died of cancer at the age of 54 on Nov. 12, 1994.

1940: Stuart Sutcliffe, the original bassist for The Beatles, is born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Sutcliffe, who left the band in July 1961 to pursue his career as an artist, died of a brain aneurysm on April 10, 1962, at age 21.

1929: Country music singer-songwriter June Carter Cash, a member of the Carter Family and the second wife of singer Johnny Cash, is born Valerie June Carter in Maces Spring, Virginia. She is best known for songs such as "Juke Box Blues" and "Jackson," the Grammy-winning No. 2 country hit duet with her husband. She's seen here at center with her husband and step-daughter, Rosanne Cash. She died May 15, 2003, of complications following heart-valve replacement surgery at the age of 73.

1927: Dancer, choreographer, actor and director Bob Fosse is born in Chicago, Illinois. Fosse won an unprecedented eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction. He also was nominated for an Academy Award four times, winning for his direction of 1972's "Cabaret," beating out Francis Ford Coppola for "The Godfather" in the process. Some of his other movies include "Sweet Charity," "Lenny" and "All that Jazz." He died of a heart attack at age 60 on Sept. 23, 1987.

1926: The College Board administers the first SAT exam, when it was known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

1917: In a game against the Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox pitcher Ernie Shore retires 26 batters in a row after replacing Babe Ruth, who had been ejected following an argument and physical altercation with home plate umpire Brick Owens after walking the game's first batter, Ray Morgan. The Red Sox threw out Morgan as he tried to steal second and Shore faced the minimum number of batters the rest of the way in the 4-0 win. For many years the game was listed in record books as a "perfect game," but officially it is scored as a no-hitter, shared by two pitchers.

1912: Alan Turing, the mathematician, cryptanalyst and computer scientist who was highly influential in the development of computer science and the fundamentals of modern computers, is born in London, England. During World War II, Turing worked for Britain's codebreaking center, devising a number of techniques for breaking German ciphers. He also developed the ACE, among the first designs for a stored-program computer, and the Turing machine, a hypothetical device that can be considered a model of a general purpose computer. Turing was prosecuted for homosexuality in 1952, when such acts were still criminalized in the United Kingdom, and underwent chemical castration as an alternative to prison. In September 2009, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the government for Turing's treatment and Queen Elizabeth II granted him a posthumous pardon in December 2013.

1894: At the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the International Olympic Committee is founded at the Sorbonne in Paris, France.

1894: Edward VIII, the British monarch who abdicated in 1936 in order to marry American socialite Wallis Simpson, is born in White Lodge, Richmond, Surrey, England. He rule as King Edward VIII from Jan. 20, 1936, until his abdication on Dec. 11, 1936, and remains the only British monarch to voluntarily renounce the throne since the Anglo-Saxon period. Edward (seen here in 1945) was succeeded as king by his brother Albert, from then on known as King George VI, and was named Duke of Windsor. He died of throat cancer at age 77 in May 1972.

1894: Entomologist and sexologist Alfred Kinsey, who became widely known for his research on human sexuality, is born in Hoboken, New Jersey. He founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University in 1947 and wrote the books "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" and "Sexual Behavior in the Human Female," more commonly known as the "Kinsey Reports." He died of a heart ailment and pneumonia at age 62 on Aug. 25, 1956.

1888: At the Republican National Convention, Frederick Douglass becomes the first black person to have his name put forward for a presidential nomination, in a major party's roll call vote, receiving one vote from Kentucky in the fourth vote.

1868: Christopher Latham Sholes receives a patent for an invention he called the "Type-Writer."

1865: Confederate Brig. Gen. Stand Watie surrenders the last significant rebel army at Fort Towson in the Oklahoma Territory.

1611: The mutinous crew of Henry Hudson's fourth voyage sets Hudson, his teenage son John and seven loyal crew members adrift in an open boat in what is now Hudson Bay. The Hudsons, and those cast off with them, were never heard from again.

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